Moving ideas into action

For the past eleven years, On The Move has developed young people as leaders to address the most pressing and critical educational, social, health and economic inequities as identified by our communities. Through strong community partnerships, we have built youth-led initiatives that explore approaches to closing the achievement gap, promote wellness and inclusion, reduce social and economic barriers, support youth in their transition into adult independence, increase family self-sufficiency, and develop emerging leadership in the public sector. Today, On The Move’s initiatives offer a powerful and groundbreaking combination of strategies seeking to engage and develop new leaders, collaborate with partners in rigorous systems change, and foster communities that are inclusive and equitable.

Moving ideas into action

For the past eleven years, On The Move has developed young people as leaders to address the most pressing and critical educational, social, health and economic inequities as identified by our communities. Through strong community partnerships, we have built youth-led initiatives that explore approaches to closing the achievement gap, promote wellness and inclusion, reduce social and economic barriers, support youth in their transition into adult independence, increase family self-sufficiency, and develop emerging leadership in the public sector. Today, On The Move’s initiatives offer a powerful and groundbreaking combination of strategies seeking to engage and develop new leaders, collaborate with partners in rigorous systems change, and foster communities that are inclusive and equitable.

ABOUT US

In 2003 a group of visionary public sector professionals – executive directors, school superintendents, principals, and philanthropy leaders – gathered as colleagues to identify an array of common challenges that each had faced throughout their careers. They began to pose their challenges as a set of questions and to explore the potential for real solutions:

How do we develop the next generation of public sector leaders?

How do we strengthen organizations to thrive creatively in a changing world?

How do we build relationships that foster healthy, vibrant communities?

OUR FUNDERS

Our Initiatives

On The Move’s initiatives offer a powerful and groundbreaking combination of strategies seeking to engage and develop new leaders, collaborate with partners in rigorous systems change, and foster communities that are inclusive and equitable. Our current initiatives, described below, are presented in the order they were established.

Our Initiatives

On The Move’s initiatives offer a powerful and groundbreaking combination of strategies seeking to engage and develop new leaders, collaborate with partners in rigorous systems change, and foster communities that are inclusive and equitable. Our current initiatives, described below, are presented in the order they were established.

On The Verge - Developing Emerging Leaders

On The Verge is the flagship program of On The Move that supports emerging leaders in building knowledge, clarity and strength at the personal, interpersonal and professional levels. Since 2003 On The Verge has mobilized over 275 emerging leaders to build and sustain a culture of effective action while enhancing California’s nonprofit and public sector. Offered through year-long cohort programs, each leader, or “Verger,” builds life-long connections with peers that sustain the Verger’s efforts to continue in the nonprofit and public sector, and works collaboratively to develop projects based off of community need. Currently, On The Verge is offered in 7 communities throughout Northern California.

VOICES - Foster Care to Independence

VOICES provides healthy, welcoming and lively community centers where transitioning foster youth have access to comprehensive housing, education, employment and wellness services. Over the past ten years, VOICES has established programs in Monterey, Napa, Santa Clara and Sonoma Counties that work with the entire community to address the barriers that young people face as they leave systems of care. Today, over 2,000 transition-age youth utilize VOICES’ peer-based resources to find connections and build a foundation for their futures each year. In addition to receiving support services, VOICES youth are active leaders in coaching their peers, guiding the evolving vision of program delivery, training growing numbers of social service agencies to become “youth-friendly,” and advocating for youth voice in the community.

Neighborhood Initiative - Achieving Educational Equity

The Neighborhood Initiative is a place-based effort to shift the academic and professional trajectory of children attending McPherson and Phillips Elementary Schools. School leaders and On The Move staff collaborate to raise academic outcomes from preschool to college and career. Campus-based family resource centers support family health and wellbeing while promoting parent leadership and learning. Elementary, middle and high school youth leadership academies foster an inter-generational pipeline of community leadership and work to secure educational equity. This combined focus on academic achievement, parent engagement and youth leadership results in young people who build vibrant communities and pursue a future in which all possibilities real and attainable.

Parent University - Parent Education & Engagement

Parent Universityprovides Napa and Sonoma parents with the tools and knowledge to become more involved in their children’s education. Through 50 different classes offered at eight elementary schools, the program fosters a campus culture of volunteerism and parent leadership while serving as the gateway to mobilize parent participation in every classroom. Each year over 2,000 parents learn how to support their child’s literacy, gain computer skills, improve their English, and provide their children with a home environment that promotes lifelong learning and health. Hands-on learning opportunities allow parents to connect with other parents and to gradually develop the skills to assist or teach Parent University classes themselves.

LGBTQ Connection - A Safe Space for Wellbeing & Inclusion

LGBTQ Connection (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning) is a youth-led initiative working to increase awareness, inclusion and support of LGBTQ people of all ages and races. Each year, LGBTQ Connection engages 700 LGBTQ people and their families and trains 500 professionals from local organizations across Northern California to increase the safety, visibility and well being of LGBTQ residents. In Napa and Sonoma Counties the program operates local LGBTQ community centers, supporting underserved LGBTQ youth and senior citizens. The Napa and Sonoma offices of LGBTQ Connection each provide a safe and trusted space to cultivate hubs of activity and community.

THRIVE Enterprises - Reducing Barriers to Employment

THRIVE Enterprises and its corresponding THRIVE Café actively reduce the barriers to employment faced by Napa’s most underserved populations, including those with mental illness and young people exiting foster care, group homes and probation. Clients receive employment coaching, paid on-the-job training, community development internships within On The Move’s programs and job placement within food production, gardening, clerical, janitorial services and hospitality career pathways. At the THRIVE Café, clients have the opportunity to work in a customer service role, gain food production skills, train in janitorial skills or receive clerical training and experience. THRIVE Café also offers an urban farm, where clients work in community gardens, gain farming, irrigation and landscaping experience and harvest produce that will be prepared and sold at the Café.

The Innovations Community Center is a consumer-staffed mental health program that supports individuals from underserved communities. The Center explores the complex interplay between mental health services and aging, poverty, race, immigration status, sexual identity and substance abuse. The Center promotes collaborative relationships between mental health consumers and Napa County mental health practitioners. Providers and consumers work together to foster healing through storytelling, artistic expression, healthy living, spiritual practice and social connections. Members of the Innovations Community Center participate in support groups, one-on-one peer coaching, work experience and volunteer opportunities.

Thousands of low and moderate income hourly workers in Napa's agriculture, hospitality and retail industries are getting direct financial aid thanks to the generosity of the Napa Valley Community Foundation, vintners, grape growers and many individual donations.

“Our founders were looking out, looking forward, and asking, ‘What is going to happen when all the Baby Boomers leave their leadership positions?” explains etsuko kubo, On the Verge program director. “Will we have people who are trained and who have personal and professional networks built that will help to serve the social good?"

Ygnacio Lopez first came to the United States when he was 30. He couldn’t read or write in Spanish and didn’t speak any English. More than three decades later, he still struggles with both, but with the help of volunteers from Napa’s On The Move, Lopez spent months studying American civics, passed his citizenship test and interview.

On the Move is adding a mobile office – a hitch trailer dubbed “Community on the Move” – to its fleet of programs and services. The concept was created by a group of professionals participating in On the Verge, an On the Move leadership program. The “Vergers” presented the 1969 Silver Streak Travel Trailer, which took about 35 days to refurbish, to Napa County providers during a kickoff event at Napa Lutheran Church on Thursday.